Thursday, May 31, 2012

The first time your child rolls over, eats “solid” food and crawls are all significant milestones. Does a child’s first haircut also count as a significant milestone? I’m not sure of the answer, but I’m sharing my 14-month old son’s first haircut experience with you (and possibly with him to see when he’s older). So where does someone find a barber/stylist that specializes in kids’ haircuts? Let’s go to the mall!

We chose Cartoon Cuts, a chain with locations throughout the DC area that specializes in children’s haircuts, primarily since the salon is located fairly close to home. Plus, the salon employs some of the most patient people you’ll ever meet. I have no idea how they provide haircuts day after day to kids, many that I’m sure don’t want to be there and share their displeasure. One such kid was my son. I’ve mentioned before that he’s generally a happy child except when I scared him during the Steelers playoff game and when he gets his diaper changed. I have no idea why he hates the diaper-changing experience.

Anyway, as soon as he sat in the barber chair, he freaked out. Maybe he didn’t like the idea of being strapped into the chair, so we quickly went to Plan B meaning that he would sit on Daddy’s lap. That didn’t help. Lots of crying and tears when the apron went on and the scissors came out. Since he enjoys seeing his reflection, I tried to point out the numerous mirrors he could see. That didn’t help. I showed him the television located directly in front of him. Even though he is usually fascinated by the TV, that didn’t help. The stylist gave him a game to play with, and while that grabbed his attention for about 8 seconds, overall, that didn’t help. More crying. More tears.

After what was probably about 5 minutes but seemed like 55, my son’s first haircut was complete. He looked so handsome and mature. He also looked so grown-up. He could have gone straight from the mall to his Bar Mitzvah! As soon as he was out of the chair and back to being held by Daddy, he was fine. No crying and no more tears. He was his usual happy self walking through the mall and at dinner.

Overall, the haircut cost $15 after using a $2 off coupon and not including tip. Cartoon Cuts also offers a first haircut certificate, but they were out so I need to go back to get one. To answer your questions, yes, we took some of his hair and placed it in a Ziploc bag to commemorate the event. Plus, we’ll use the bag of hair for a Harry Potter spell at a later date to be determined.

In addition, yes, we took pictures to chronicle this potentially significant milestone. He looks miserable in every picture which should make for some fun and entertaining (and embarrassing) stories when he’s a teenager!

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Last year, DirecTV had an amazing offer that new customers received the NFL’s Sunday Ticket for free. (I think they still have this offer for new customers this year too.) Although I worried about the possibility of a lockout causing the cancellation of the 2011 season, DirecTV guaranteed free Sunday Ticket for 2012 if this occurred. Fortunately, with the exception of the Steelers-Broncos playoff game where I scared my child, the season took place.

With the 2012 NFL season not too far away, I need to decide my future with Sunday Ticket. The cost of Sunday Ticket this season is $200 which is a significant difference from the $0 I paid last year (like a $200 difference). Since I’m debating whether or not to continue with Sunday Ticket, I thought I would put both the pros and cons of keeping or dropping Sunday Ticket on paper (well, computer screen).

Pros:
- With Sunday Ticket, I can watch every Pittsburgh Steelers and NFL game.
- I don’t need to leave the house.
- I can DVR/pause the game in case of diaper emergency.
- I can watch the game with my son and teach him to wave the Terrible Towel.
- Without Sunday Ticket, if I’m watching football from home, I’m stuck with the local games. This means lots of Washington Redskins games. That can be torturous.

Cons:
- $200

I admit that these are weak lists, but the determining factor truly is money. Looking at the NFL TV schedule, between Thursday, Sunday and Monday night games, the NFL scheduled the Steelers for five national games. The Steelers also face Washington and the Steelers-Ravens game not on national TV should air in DC. Plus, there tends to be at least one or two other games available in DC as part of regional coverage. All of this means that at least 7 Steelers games will be available on local TV. Therefore, the question is if I want to pay $200 for about 9 Steelers games.

I also need to factor in probably being away or unavailable for a few games, including the possibility of attending a game at Heinz Field. Now we’re looking at $200 for 7 Steelers games.

If I don’t get Sunday Ticket, I usually watch the Steelers at a local sports bar. Between food and drinks, this generally costs about $20-$25 per week. Additionally, instead of watching the Steelers games from 1:00 to 4:00 at home, going out means leaving the house around noon and not returning until 5:00. That’s a long time away from the family on a weekend day. Therefore, maybe I should ask do I want to pay $140-$175 to watch 7 Steelers games out and deal with any possible consequences of being out so much. (For example, it will be unlikely that I will referee any weekend soccer games being away from home for so many Sunday afternoons.)

So do any of you find yourself in the same scenario? What are your thoughts about the Sunday Ticket dilemma?

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Happy Tuesday everyone! I hope that you had a nice Memorial Day weekend. We're back with a picture edition of Trivia Tuesday. Recently, your challenge was to name the movie or television show featuring Steve Buscemi. Today, your challenge is to name the movie or TV show featuring Mr. Chevy Chase.

As always please leave your answers in the comments section below, and do not use the internet for assistance. Good luck!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

One of the big stories on the internet yesterday was Buffalo Bills wide receiver David Clowney tweeting the results of his HIV and Hepatitis tests. He's clean. Before we answer my question in the title, let's look at Mr. Clowney. According to Wikipedia, Clowney was born in Amityville, New York though ESPN lists him as born in Queens. After attending high school in Delray Beach, Florida and going to college at Virginia Tech, the Green Bay Packers drafted Clowney in the fifth round of the 2007 NFL draft. It appears that the Packers cut Clowney at some point since he signed with the New York Jets part-way through the 2007 season. Clowney played in 18 games for the Jets over the 2008-2010 seasons before being released by the team and signing with the Carolina Panthers where he played 10 games in 2010. It doesn't appear that Clowney played in 2011. Overall, Clowney has 22 career catches for 341 yards and 1 touchdown. That's basically 2-3 games for Mike Wallace.

I bring up Clowney's background since there doesn't appear to be any Pittsburgh connection. Why does this matter? Take a look at the medical results.

The testing was performed by Quest Diagnostics located at 875 Greentree Road (Parkway Center) in Pittsburgh. Did Clowney drive all the way to Greentree to take the blood test and then drive through the Fort Pitt tunnels? Clowney probably had the test done in Buffalo, but why was the testing performed in Pittsburgh? They don't have any Quest Diagnostics or anywhere else to test blood results in Western New York?

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

If I was Catholic, I would go to confession. I assume that I would start by saying to the priest, "Forgive me Father, for I have sinned." (People really say this, right, or is this just what I've learned from television and movies?) When I moved to the DC area in 2001, I immediately entered into a relationship. Despite moving to different areas of Northern Virginia, the relationship continued, and I've been faithful throughout the past 11 years. Obviously, there have been ups and downs in the relationship. There were times that I was neglectful and not always around. Conversely, there were times when perhaps I was needy and overstayed my welcome. Nevertheless, the relationship was always there, and I was never swayed to cheat...until yesterday.

I'm embarrassed to write this, but I feel that I need to come clean. Although I've been loyal to the Fairfax County Public Library system and got a library card almost immediately after moving to Northern Virginia, I now have a library card through the Arlington County Public Library. I just finished a book and have several that I'd like to read including Don't Put Me In, Coach: My Incredible NCAA Journey from the End of the Bench to the End of the Bench by Mark Titus; Taft 2012: A Novel by Jason Heller; and Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden--from 9/11 to Abbottabad by Peter Bergen. Yes, this is an eclectic group of books. Anyway, FCPL doesn't have the first two books in their catalog while they only have 4 copies of the Peter Bergen book. I'm currently #144 on the hold list. Meanwhile, Arlington County Public Library has all three books in the catalog. The Jason Heller book is available immediately, the Mark Titus book should be available soon and there are 12 copies of the Peter Bergen book where I'm #40 on the hold list. I should mention that the Fairfax County Public Library system is much bigger and serves a much larger population. Therefore, I don't know why they appear to be lagging significantly behind the Arlington County Public Library system.

In case you're wondering, I'm not leaving the Fairfax County Public Library system. I support the library through my taxes and have attended several books sales over the years. I also look forward to taking my child to programs there this summer. However, I'm no longer in an exclusive relationship. To FCPL, I'd say that it's not you, it's me, but in this case, it truly is you.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Last week, the Social Security Administration released the most popular baby names of 2011. Jacob, Mason, William, Jayden & Noah earned the top five spots for most popular boys names while Sophia, Isabella, Emma, Olivia and Ava were the top five female names. Basically, every girl in kindergarten in five years will have a first name that ends in “A.”

You can easily spend hours searching for names on the Social Security website. While I will neither confirm nor deny that I spent hours searching names on the Social Security website, I will share some observations for you.

- Mitt and Barack are not in the top 1000 names for any year of birth in 2011 or in the last 12 years.

- While Khloe was the 49th most popular girls name, Lamar was only the 721st most popular boys name. Apparently, the E! Network made the right decision in not naming the show Lamar & Khloe.

- Shockingly, Timothy and Tebow did not fall into the top 100 most popular male or female names in 2011 in Colorado.

- While Brooklyn finished #21 for girls, Staten Island was not in the top 1000 male or female names.

- In 2006, Sean finished as the 68th most popular boys name. This went to #76 in 2007; #83 in 2008; #97 in 2009; #102 in 2010; and #125 in 2011. I wonder if this blog is related to the downward trend of Sean across the country.

- Hines was not in the top 1000 names in 2011. I guess winning Dancing with the Stars means nothing in terms of name popularity.

- Troy finished as the 244th most popular boys name in 2011. I feel like this number is much higher in Western Pennsylvania.

- All you need in Wyoming to reach the top 100 names in 2011 is five girls with the same name. Congrats to the five Wyoming girls named Kinley, Payton, Reagan, Emery & Brylee.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Let’s have some fun. In today's scenario, you have access to a time machine where you can travel to one place anywhere in the past. Let’s pretend that this is like Back to the Future where Marty McFly goes to the past for a short period of time, but you’re unable to impact the future. Therefore, you can’t prevent 9-11 or the Kennedy assassination, although if can somehow find a future Sports Almanac, use it wisely. For this example, let's say that you go back in time at your current age. You can't go back to high school and all of a sudden you're 17 again. If you go back to the time of your high school years, you are still 35 (assuming that you are 35 today). So where and when would you go?

Without putting as much thought into this as I would have liked, I would pick either Pittsburgh during the 1960 World Series or Berlin when the Wall came down in 1989. Both joyous events that took place in the not too distant past. I probably wouldn't do very well going back too far like during the end of the Revolutionary War since there was no television, air conditioning or fast food restaurants. It would be tough enough traveling back to 1960 and 1989 without the internet!

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

I'd like to think that I'm a fairly intelligent individual. I'm not sure if I can provide any specific examples of this other than the fact that I have a Master's degree. Well, that might not help my case. Perhaps earning free burritos for a year shows my intelligence?

Anyway, ESPN has a relatively new category on the Major League Baseball Standings: POFF. POFF is not some type of bug spray or something to repel urine, but the percentage chance of making the playoffs. Here are the National League Central standings as of today (May 16th):

Team / Record / Games Back / POFF (I'm sorry that this format doesn't look very good.)

St. Louis 21-15 - 84.1%

Cincinnati 18-17 2.5 36.1%

Pittsburgh 17-19 4 7.7%

Milwaukee 16-20 5 16.0%

Houston 15-21 6 12.8%

Chicago 15-21 6 12.2%

Even though the Pirates have better records than the Brewers, Astros and Cubs, they have a lower percent chance to reach the playoffs. I don't get it. While I'm sure that Pirates' run differential of -25 (runs scored - runs allowed) probably factors into this equation somehow, why would the Brewers have double the chance the reach the playoffs with a run differential of -23? (The Astros and Cubs have run differentials of +1 and -19 respectively.)

Meanwhile, the Colorado Rockies at 14-21 and 9.5 games out of the NL West have a 9.1% chance of reaching the playoffs with a -17 run differential. Although the Pirates are 2.5 games ahead of Colorado and 5.5 games closer to the division leader compared to the Rockies, the Bucs have a lower chance to reach the playoffs.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

It’s a rainy Tuesday here in Washington, so the sky is gray as opposed to blue. If I turn on the radio, maybe I will hear Wiz Khalifa’s Black and Yellow. Plus, it’s not easy being green. Given the stars and the year of debut, your challenge this week is to name the television show with a color in its title. Now you understand the first few sentences.

1. Ricky Schroder, Erin Gray (1982)

2. Daniel J. Travanti, Betty Thomas (1981)

3. Ellen Pompeo, Sandra Oh (2005)

4. Betty White, Bea Arthur (1985)

5. Eddie Albert, Eva Gabor (1965)

6. Denise Boutte, Tamela J. Mann (2009)

7. Dennis Franz, David Caruso (1993)

8. Matt Bomer, Tim DeKay (2009)

9. Tom Selleck, Donnie Wahlbert (2010)

10. Rowan Atkinson, Elspert Gray (1982)

As always please leave your answers in the comments section below, and do not use the internet for assistance. Good luck!

Monday, May 14, 2012

Chad Smith is the excellent drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, a band I saw perform at the Verizon Center in DC last week. Yes, the show was great though I would have preferred that the band play a few less songs from their new album and perform Breaking the Girl and Snow (Hey Oh). I could write much more about the show, but I want to focus on Mr. Smith. At the end of the concert, Chad Smith was the last member of the band on stage. He threw a few of his drumsticks into the crowd, went to the microphone and said, “I hope that Capitals win the [f’n] Cup!” He did not say f’n. Anyway, I wouldn’t have thought much about Smith’s proclamation except that the next day I saw this article and video of Smith by NHL.com:

This text is from the article:

But the longtime Detroit Red Wings fan has also been lucky enough to live out some of his childhood hockey dreams. For the Michigan-born Smith, a lifelong infatuation with the Wings reached a new level in 1997, when he found himself in the locker room at Joe Louis Arena as the Red Wings celebrated their first Stanley Cup in 42 years.

Your favorite team wins the Stanley Cup and you get to celebrate the victory in the locker room. That’s just awesome.

A Los Angeles resident for decades, Smith has adopted the Kings as another NHL favorite. For the drummer, who occasionally attends Kings games when the band isn't touring, their current run to the Western Conference Finals has been exciting.

Essentially, Smith roots for the Kings unless they face the Red Wings. I completely understand this. When I lived in San Diego, I supported Tony Gwynn and the Padres unless they faced the Pirates. I also lived in Columbus during the inaugural season of the Blue Jackets, so I have a connection to that organization from my time working as a beer man at Nationwide Arena. Of course, as much as I want Columbus to do well, the Penguins will always be my favorite team.

Anyway, let’s get back to Chad Smith. Nashville eliminated the Red Wings in the first round of this year’s NHL playoffs. With the Kings advancing to the Western Conference finals, you would think that Smith now wants Los Angeles to win the Stanley Cup. So why the "I hope the Capitals win the Cup" statement?

Let’s go back to the video. If you watched it, you probably noticed the 4:40 mark where Smith states "I think Washington’s going to win tonight (meaning game 6 last Wednesday). I don’t really want them to win…but game 7 is going to the Rangers." He continues by stating that he hopes that the Kings and Rangers meet in the finals. So what the heck, Chad Smith? Why state that you hope the Caps win when you also want the Kings and Rangers to win? Is Smith looking to run for political office? If so, it's a good strategy to pander to the New York and Los Angeles voters. I guess that you don't want to upset the Capitals fans either. This seems like a Sarah Palin situation from 2008 all over again. With the Capitals loss to the Rangers in game seven on Saturday, I guess that Smith's hopes of the Caps winning the Cup this year are over.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Today is my birthday, so Happy Birthday to me! If you’re reading this on Sunday, Happy Mother’s Day too! Do you see what’s happening here? It’s my birthday, and I have to share today with every mom. Can’t I be a little selfish today and have my own day?

I was 4 the first time my birthday fell on Mother’s Day. To celebrate, I got chicken pox. Apparently, that ruined a big dinner and plans for the entire family. Maybe subconsciously, I didn’t want to share the attention.

I recently complained to a friend about this whole birthday-Mother’s Day thing. (I left out the previous paragraph and the whole chicken box thing.) She replied, “try having a Christmas birthday like me.” My complaining ended immediately.

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

I received a phone call the other night from a member of a political party talking about the importance of winning Virginia in both the Presidential and Senate elections this November. The guy said that I could support the party by donating $100. Um, no. As he stated that he understood that $100 was a lot of money and started going into the appeal to contribute less than $100, my child began to cry. I have no idea why, but he regularly cries when we lay him on the changing table. Even though my wife was there to change his diaper, I could clearly hear him through the baby monitor. I interrupted the guy on the phone by stating that I had to go due to a crying baby. Game, set, match! Checkmate! What else could the guy on the phone do in that situation? A father needs to take care of his crying baby immediately. Phone call over and the guy can't feel like I blew him off even if I did.

Meanwhile, I also received an invitation to a wine & cheese reception to support a candidate from a different political party. For the sponsorship levels, the cost is $1000 to be a "host" which also gives you 6 reservations for the event. However, a "friend" level is $100 and gets you 1 reservation. Why wouldn't someone contribute $1000 for 10 friend level sponsorships and bring 10 people to the event? The better question may be why am I receiving all this politcal stuff?

Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Let’s say that you’re trying to plan a vacation for 8 people, including two kids under 18 months. You’re looking to take this vacation in late-June or early-July and it must be in driving distance from Washington DC. Let’s also say that a trip to the Maryland or Delaware beaches is out since beach house rentals appear to be too expensive for the prime-time of their tourist seasons. Where would you go? Please note that the group of 8 would prefer to stay in the same facility.

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

We haven’t had many responses to Trivia Tuesday recently. Are the questions too easy or too difficult? Regardless, I sense that you’ll do well this week. Given the name of the television shows below, your challenge is to name the city that provides the primary setting.

1. The Flintstones

2. The Andy Griffith Show

3. Glee

4. Family Guy

5. Ally McBeal

6. The Big Bang Theory

7. Two and a Half Men

8. Family Matters

9. How I Met Your Mother

10. Parks and Recreation

Bonus: Mr. Belvedere

As always please leave your answers in the comments section below, and do not use the internet for assistance. Good luck!

This quiz (except for the bonus question) is courtesy of the fine folks at Stump Trivia.

Sean's Ramblings Is Everywhere

About Me

Welcome to Sean's Ramblings! If you're looking for thoughts on pop culture, music, fun and informative links, random DC and Pittsburgh info, sports (particularly Pittsburgh sports), and just what's going on in my life, then you're come to the right place.
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